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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24239011">Trail</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkNymfa/pseuds/DarkNymfa'>DarkNymfa</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>DP Ficlet Collection [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Danny Phantom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Ficlet, Gen, Identity Reveal, identity reveal adjacent</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2019-09-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2019-09-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 19:53:57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,978</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24239011</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkNymfa/pseuds/DarkNymfa</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>They chased Phantom for weeks, and finally pinned it. Or... did they?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>DP Ficlet Collection [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1749379</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>173</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Trail</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Prompt by another anonymous asker over on Tumblr: "One or both of the Fenton parents (your choice who) follow Phantoms' trail, except it's actually Dani"</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Maddie’s fingers drummed on the steering wheel, impatient. She and Jack had been tracking Phantom for weeks, the Fenton Jet not quite able to keep up with the ghost’s momentum. The only reason that they hadn’t lost the ghost entirely was because of its habit to stop and haunt cities that captured its interest.</p>
<p>It never stayed anywhere for longer than a few days, however. Never as long as it had stayed in Amity Park.</p>
<p>“I still don’t understand why it left,” she said to Jack, briefly glancing over at the built-in Fenton Finder to check that they were still following the ghost. “I mean, it has haunted Amity for years. Why did it leave so suddenly?”</p>
<p>Her husband shrugged. “It’s a ghost, Mads. Nothing they do makes sense.”</p>
<p>“But it completely changed its ways!” She shook her head. “I mean, we haven’t heard a word about it fighting ghosts since it left Amity. What changed?”</p>
<p>“Maybe it’s chasing something, or trying to retrieve something.” His jumpsuit creaked as he shifted in his seat, the rhythmic movement of his stitching a steady sight in the corner of her eye. “Maybe it knows it’s being chased, and doesn’t want to stop for too long?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know, Jack… There’s so much we don’t know about it, about its mannerisms.”</p>
<p>“Well, we’ll just have to catch it and find out, won’t we?” He shifted again, then with a confused tone, added, “Huh, looks like it stopped again. Another larger city, I think.”</p>
<p>“See, that’s another thing I don’t understand. It always seems to pick out major cities, cities that would attract tourists. But Amity didn’t have that until <em>after</em> it settled down and started fighting ghosts.”</p>
<p>Jack shrugged again. “Maybe it relocated because it wants a bigger audience? Maybe it’s looking for a good spot to settle down, and it keeps stopping to try out a place?”</p>
<p>“Maybe,” she allowed. It made some sense, at least, but still… It didn’t seem quite right. “At least we can keep up like this. If it didn’t stop at all, we would’ve lost it after mere days.”</p>
<p>He laughed. “Yeah! And the timing is pretty convenient too. We couldn’t have left the kids alone during school, but it was summer vacation anyway.”</p>
<p>“That’s true. I guess we got lucky.” Or did they? It seemed more and more suspicious, now. Was Phantom leading them into a trap? But why would it lead them so far away to do it?</p>
<p>“Well, I’m not gonna say no to a bout of good luck!” Jack chuckled, resuming his stitching. “Maybe we’ll get real lucky this time and actually catch it.”</p>
<p>“Don’t jinx us, honey. We have to refuel the Jet first, or we risk losing it if it flies off.”</p>
<p>“Yes, yes, I know.” A beat or two of silence. “Still, we’re far closer than we usually are. Maybe we can finally catch up fully!”</p>
<p>She shook her head, a fond smile on her face. “Well, why don’t you go prepare our things, Jack? I’ll ask the airport staff to refuel the plane while we’re away.”</p>
<p>“Ooh.” He bounced up out of his seat, stitch work immediately abandoned. “Great idea, Mads!”</p>
<p>Her husband thus distracted, Maddie could focus on catching up on Phantom. Its flight path had turned somewhat erratic as it approached the city, which was confusing, but allowed them to catch up even more.</p>
<p>Landing was something of a hassle – the Fenton Jet was no conventional airplane, and as thus tended to attract unwanted attention – but they managed alright. The staff, who thankfully knew English thanks to the touristic nature of the city, promised to refuel the plane for them, and so they were finally ready to chase down their ghost.</p>
<p>“We’re getting close,” Jack said over the Fenton Phones, somewhere a few streets over from her. She checked the Fenton Finder in her hand, an ecto-gun in the other. “We just need to get close enough without it noticing.”</p>
<p>“Yes.” She checked that her gun was charged and ready. It was. “Get to your end of whatever street it is on, and I’ll get to mine. We can corner it.”</p>
<p>Jack hummed a note of approval, and the line went silent.</p>
<p>She sped to the end of the street, one eye on the Finder to keep track of Phantom’s progression. It was flying through the street, parallel to her and Jack. The only difference was that <em>it</em> was moving through houses, rather than following a road.</p>
<p>At least it wasn’t flying full speed. Instead it meandered around, like it was looking for something.</p>
<p>Finally it stopped, and she and Jack came to a halt on either end of the street. She saw Jack in the distance, his bright orange jumpsuit standing out even from so far. Phantom didn’t seem to have noticed him, thankfully, against all odds.</p>
<p>“On my signal,” she whispered to Jack, the Fenton Phones carrying the sound to him. “We’ll ambush it. You cover downwards, and I’ll cover up.”</p>
<p>“Got it.”</p>
<p>She held up a hand, watching Phantom. It had paused somewhere in the center of the street, and was now slowly drifting towards the houses to the side. They would have to go quickly, before it lost interest in whatever made it stop.</p>
<p>“Now!” she yelled as she balled her fist.</p>
<p>Jack started moving immediately, and so did she. They stormed towards Phantom, who looked up at the noise, its white hair windswept and its green eyes wide.</p>
<p>It tried darting upwards, but a shot from her gun made it falter. When it tried going down instead, Jack intercepted it. And then, before it could try anything else, they were right next to it, guns aimed at its face.</p>
<p>Phantom hovered right above the street, curled into itself slightly. Its white hair hung over its face, but its ectoplasm-green eyes were visible beyond the strands. The eyes were wide and staring right at her, an expression close to fear – like ghosts could feel fear, ha!</p>
<p>Only… this wasn’t Phantom. It sure <em>looked</em> like him, the white hair and the green eyes and the black jumpsuit, so much like their own it was a little eerie. Because this ghost…</p>
<p>This ghost was a girl. Or, well, the ghost of a girl. Its hair was longer, bound into a ponytail, and its jumpsuit had a slightly different design than Phantom’s, too. One of its arms was discolored, even, the sleeve white and the glove black. Its held a slightly more feminine shape than Phantom’s, too, although not much; the ghost was mimicking a young girl, after all.</p>
<p>“What’s…” Jack muttered, a frown on his face. “What’re you supposed to be?”</p>
<p>The ghost spluttered, its eyes darting between the two of them. Now that Maddie was looking closer, she could pick out more and more differences between this ghost and Phantom, although they were admittedly still very similar. Their facial structure was almost identical, and even the bags under their eyes matched.</p>
<p>“Me?” the ghost tried, still looking between the two of them. It seemed a little slow, like it was tired. Had it gotten exhausted by the constant high-speed flying? Was that why it kept stopping? “Have you ever looked at yourselves?”</p>
<p>“Hey!” Jack snapped back, immediately offended. “At least <em>we</em> aren’t ectoplasmic invaders, you ghostly scum!”</p>
<p>It rolled its eyes, but flinched back when Jack shifted his gun. Maddie immediately stiffened as well. They couldn’t risk it fleeing. They had <em>just</em> pinned it down.</p>
<p>“Well, that’s nice and all,” the ghost said, its words carefully measured, “But I don’t think that I enjoy the implications here. So…”</p>
<p>Suddenly it sped away, staying close to the floor rather than dodge up or down. Maddie cursed, chasing it on foot, only sparing a brief thought to wonder why it was going so slow – and why it didn’t just turn invisible or intangible.</p>
<p>“There!” Jack exclaimed as the ghost turned a corner, followed moments later by a bright flash.</p>
<p>“What was--” She came to a halt in front of the alley. No ghost. But was that…?</p>
<p>“Oh.” Jack stepped up next to her, brow creased. He’d dropped the Fenton Finder at some point, now holding his gun with both hands. “Mads, d’you think…?”</p>
<p>“It could’ve.”</p>
<p>In a corner of the alley – a dead end – was a girl. A cowering girl, curled in on herself, pale hands digging into dark black hair. Like she was trying to protect her face, her body. She looked like she was scared out of her mind. Possibly from seeing a ghost. From seeing <em>the</em> ghost.</p>
<p>But it could be the Phantom-like ghost they were chasing. Whatever reason it had to shy away from using its powers, it still could’ve overshadowed this girl in an attempt to escape them. There was only one way to prove it. A way that would be <em>so much</em> easier back home, where people knew them and spoke the same language.</p>
<p>Oh, if only they hadn’t chased this damn ghost all the way to a different continent!</p>
<p>Still, they had to try. She might not be able to guarantee that this girl spoke English, but softly speaking to her should help, regardless. Maybe they could mime out a question, an answer?</p>
<p>“Hey,” she said, keeping her voice gentle as she crept closer. To Jack, she gestured that he should stay. If the girl <em>was</em> overshadowed, one of them needed to be armed, still. And if she wasn’t? Well, Jack <em>was</em> quite an intimidating figure. She didn’t want to scare the girl worse.</p>
<p>“Hey,” she repeated, within arm’s reach of the possibly overshadowed girl. “Are you alright?”</p>
<p>The girl looked up, eyes watery but clear, and blue as the skies. Not overshadowed.</p>
<p>But, oh. Her eyes were the exact same shade as Danny’s, and now that Maddie was closer, so was her hair. And, goodness, that face was almost identical to Danny’s, too.</p>
<p>“Oh,” she said, inadvertently. The girl started, apparently not having expected her either, and--</p>
<p>
  <em>and flickered out of sight.</em>
</p>
<p>It only lasted a brief moment, so short that Maddie was sure she would’ve missed it if she’d blinked. But she <em>hadn’t</em>.</p>
<p>This girl, with her bright blue eyes and deep black hair and face so similar to Danny’s that they could’ve been twins had just <em>turned invisible</em>.</p>
<p>“Oh,” sounded from behind her. Shuffling footsteps as Jack inched closer too, uncertainly.</p>
<p>The girl – ghost? – continued to stare at her, eyes wide and watery. God, she looked so scared, so genuinely humanly scared, but--</p>
<p>Jack’s gun hummed as he pressed down on the trigger, and the girl flinched away. Again, invisibility tugged at the ends of her limbs, but it slipped away before she could fully disappear from sight.</p>
<p>And it couldn’t hide how her eyes turned a vivid, glowing, acid green. A shade of green so unbelievably familiar to her.</p>
<p>A shade of green she’d stared into just moments before.</p>
<p>“Ah,” Jack murmured, and his gun quietened again. The girl settled down a little again, but her eyes still darted between the two of them.</p>
<p>Just like the Phantom-like ghost had done on the street, before it fled.</p>
<p>“What’s--” Jack cleared his throat. “What’s the Finder say, Mads?”</p>
<p>Oh, right. She raised it a little so they could both see it.</p>
<p>And there it was. The undeniable proof. It registered a ghost, right where the girl was. The core was weak and the signal weaker, like it was being--</p>
<p>“Muted,” she whispered, her eyes going wide. “Like the core’s being muted.”</p>
<p>“Just like…” Jack licked his lips, eyes going from her to the girl – the ghost. “Just like with Danny.”</p>
<p>And the girl, so much like Danny that it hurt Maddie, back pressed against the wall, raised her hands. Then she said, with a slightly wavering voice and in clear English,</p>
<p>“I can explain?”</p>
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